Mary Bannister (MaryB)

🙋‍♀️

Back in print.

Woo hoo.

Oh Rose, you’re so stuck up.

Yeah, apricot is the best.

I do think the small child getting his head stuck is believable.

It’s when I’m forced into a first person POV of a character I find annoying or not realistic that I resist.

Mrs. Jellyby is awful but since we are not in her POV I can simply appreciate Dickens’ take down of do-gooder colonialists who ignore their own families. Yes, she’s a caricature but she’s memorable. (Still a lot of those around today unfortunately.) 🔒

that’s beautiful!

Mmm yes, the apricot ones. Although I think she also made plum.

Lol!! Good thing there are all kinds of readers.

A good reminder.

I’ve always liked Purim even though I’m not Jewish because Esther is one my favorite people from the bible. Plus, long ago I had a secretary who would bring in special cookies for the day.

That’s what I want to do!

Meetup on the Nile in a few years!

Great news!

When I retired 2 years ago, my big retirement trip was going to be to Egypt. But the Israel/Palestine conflict broke out a couple of months before my retirement date so I decided to wait.

At this rate I may not get there.

Huh. So many opportunities to listen to women.

You can usually always distinguish characters in novels otherwise all novels would be identical. My point is that he could have learned from his contemporaries a different way of depicting young women and still make his social points. But he didn’t.

It’s the fact that Jane Eyre predates this novel that sinks his characterization of this woman in my eyes. Bronte created an apparently penniless orphan who is told by most adults in her life that she is an evil thing, but shows the reader something different. Dickens SHOULD have learned something.

Maybe if our allies shoot down all of our F-15’s we’ll have to end the war.

Seems good.

Charlotte was spot on.

He in general does better with grown women than young women. Possibly because he creates them as characters and not symbols. ( Even if he doesn’t explain their inner thoughts.)

I love Great Expectations but Miss Havisham is a much better character than Estella.

A long, annoying McGuffin.

Makes me think of Mr. Melheim and his reindeer.

I would never have made it through Moby Dick without this book club, I found all the chapters on the anatomy of whales so boring. But reading other people’s reactions was helpful.

Really? Did she write about it?

I always find Dickens’ young girls/women boring. But in general I‘ve enjoyed the rest of Dickens. I think he does boys well. And his side characters are always fun.

But Esther may be the reason I never made it past p. 120 in this book.

$300 million mistake

That's the same cost as 25,000 Head Start slots

Well, Dickens certainly got the “interfering man who thinks he’s being helpful but is just creepy” right.

These chapters of Bleak House were published in 1852. Less than 5 years earlier Charlotte Bronte had published Jane Eyre. Bronte knew about the inner life of girls, even those who grow up determined to be “good”. Compare Dickens’ Esther. No wonder Little Women was a hit 15 years later. 🔒